After I finished my bachelor’s degree in Audio Visual Arts, I wanted to become a screenwriter. I was attending training in screenwriting to enhance my skills, and that’s when I decided I wanted to study psychology.
How psychology and writing can relate?
Life doesn’t have one aspect; believe it or not, all majors intersect. From my personal experience, I found that it’s essential to have knowledge in different fields instead of being limited to one.
Psychology, in particular, has to do with many other fields since it’s the science that studies the human psyche. In marketing, for example, it’s essential to understand the needs of the consumer, the behaviours, and what makes a person purchase something or not. In acting, outstanding actors also do a lot of research or live with people resembling their characters to better portray a personality.
Life inspires stories; therefore, the more the characters are real, the more we can relate to them.
The Character Study of “Joker”
Before the release of “Joker”, the movie in which they tell the history of this character and how he turned out to be a criminal, everyone hated him. But after watching the movie, people empathized with this character, turning him into a “hero”. He became a symbol of many protests.
In this movie, Joker is a man raised by a non-stable mother. At work, he was bullied and was subject to many traumas during his childhood.
Does anyone who went through the same conditions as Joker would turn out to be a criminal? No, that depends on many other factors not mentioned in the movie.
A character study is the complete history of a character, whether or not it’s shown on the screen. It gives the writer a deep understanding of the character, his family history, his fears, his strengths, his particular habits, his insecurities, where he was raised, his relationship with his family, and so on.
The character study includes a personality’s internal conflicts and struggles and determines how “x” will create when facing a particular situation.
A character study gives your story a better and more sound structure and may allow you to prevent future difficulties. I’m not saying you have to be a psychologist to write one, but an excellent knowledge of human psychology or a psychologist consultation for your story could be a plus.
